Any Time Now
by OurBlueStorm
Summary: Tony has been kidnapped and tortured by an unknown force. It is up to the Avengers to save him or get themselves kidnapped as well. Rated T for whump. No language or romance. Set after the Avengers but before Iron Man 3. (No PTSD, though) My first full story... may not be very good, but I hope you like it!
1. Chapter 1

**_Any Time Now_**

 ** _Chapter 1: Prologue_**

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I am not going to apologize for making this chapter of no sense. *Evil laugh* I will apologize to whoever read the fail of a previous chapter. My computer wasn't working. Please Review!

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He though everything would be alright. Obviously, he was wrong. It seemed his captor only wanted to use him as a toy, not for a real source of information. That false sense of security had disappeared when he had been taken by Loki.

Then again, the god of mischief had his own ways of doing things.

Loki apparently had a temper that he knew his prisoner wouldn't like to meet. "You should know by now, that you are my prisoner and I am your master, so you will give me the information I need." He knew the man in the chains hated that deadly, steely voice that he used when angry. He picked up he man by the throat and shook him, hard. The man struggled to breathe under Loki's steely grip. "Now tell, me where is location of the S.H.I.E.L.D. base?"

"No," he managed to choke out. "I won't tell you."

Loki dropped the man so he crumpled to the floor and the chains around his wrists and neck jangled. The chains were connected to the ceiling of a da rk and damp room, surrounded by a moosy stone wall. The prisoner was in the middle of the large, circular room, only lit by the glow of Loki's scepter.

Loki gripped his weapon tighter as it turned into a knife at his command. He grabbed the man again and held the blue diamond encrusted knife to his throat. "Tell me, now, or I will have no mercy, _Tony Stark_."

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Thanks for reading! This isn't the actual beginning, just the prologue. Sorry it's so short!


	2. Chapter 2

**Any Time Now**

 **Chapter 2**

 **Sorry about the length of my last chapter. I didn't have a lot of time to write it and I just needed a big enough chapter to fill you guys in on what's happening. About the summary, sorry. It's not really an unknown force if I tell you in the first chapter, but it is unknown to the Avengers. Also, near the end of the fanfiction (which may be up to 18 chapters or more) I will ask you guys a question that won't make sense now, so better wait! Thanks to my reviewers and followers! Just remember to review!** **This chapter is mainly on the kidnapping and Tony meeting his captor... Just a reminder that this fanfiction will contain all of the Avengers, just Thor less than any. Oh, and no Pepperony! (or romance in general) Ok... a bit, but she isn't in the beginning of the fanfiction.**

 **Now look! The words you actually care about!**

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Tony sat contentedly on the couch in the Avengers tower. The rest of the Avengers sat with him in the living room, except for Thor. What do you expect from a god that lives in another dimension? Bruce sat on the other end of the couch Tony was sitting on, reading the fifth _Harry Potter_ book. Clint sat in one of the armchairs, polishing his bow. Steve had turned on the TV and was watching _I Love Lucy_ , laughing at all of the weird lines only someone from the 40's would understand. Natasha, or Tasha as the guys liked to call her, was watching the TV with Steve, rolling her eyes at the way he would laugh at something she had no clue existed. Tony just dozed on the couch, watching his friends doing their thing, enjoying the rare leisure time they had.

Fury had been strangely silent all day, which was strange for him, because usually he called at least once a day to make sure they weren't getting themselves into trouble. The only time he had called in a crisis was when Bruce was reading the last _Harry Potter_ book and "Hulked out" over Harry's death. That had been the first time he had read it and didn't know that Harry survives in the end. They hadn't told Fury anything, but he was suspicious of all the yelling and crashes from behind Tony, who was answering the phone and trying to lead him on a false trail. It had ended fine with only a few dents in the floor and a hole in the wall where Bruce had thrown the book.

That day it was nice outside, but Tony doubted that Fury was playing outside like the little kid they all knew had never existed. Tony wished this day would never end, but his daydreams were interrupted by the phone sitting on the counter behind them buzzing. Bruce snapped his book shut after marking his page and went to go answer it.

"To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking to?" he sniggered before mouthing 'Fury' to the rest of the group. "What? Why?" Bruce turned pale. "Again?!" The group looked up in alarm as they heard the fear and foreboding in his voice. He paused again. "Where do they think he is?" By now Steve, Clint, Tony, and Tasha were practically begging for information. "Okay. We'll be right there."

Bruce turned off the phone and raised a pale face to look at them. "We need to get to the helicarrier _now._ Suit up. I'll explain on the way."

By the time the team was ready to go, a quinjet was there to pick them up. Inside, Tony grabbed onto one of the support handles with a hand to keep steady as the quinjet took off. "So, you wanna explain what we're doing? I was having a perfectly nice afternoon doing nothing before my fun was spoiled by mister Fury-face."

The team rolled their eyes at him as Bruce took off on his explanation. "Fury called late because Thor payed a visit." The team exchanged confused glances at this. "Thor said he had come because Loki escaped from Asgard." A group of pale faces turned at this. "SHIELD doesn't know where he is, and they needed some extra help from us." Bruce almost expected to hear a snarky comment from Tony, but heard none.

Tony was terrified. The rest of the team knew that, and why. The last time they had fought Loki, Tony had flown a nuke into the portal Loki had been transporting the alien race known as the Chutari through onto Earth. The Iron Man suit had run out of power and fallen back to earth and Tony had died to be brought back by a screaming Hulk. This still burdened the team, Tony more then the rest.

Tony though he saw a shadow flit across the corner of his vision near the back of the quinjet. The Iron Man suit stood in the front of the quinjet with the back open for Tony to step in on short notice. For a moment he considered putting it on for an extra precaution. The team saw him looking around uneasily. The shadow flitted near the back of the jet again, and this time it was seen by everyone.

"Did you..."

"Yeah..."

"What was it?"

"No idea."

Tony was standing closest to the jet doors, undefended with nothing but the mandatory loaded guns they all carried in case of emergencies. Tony brought it out and cocked it. The other Avengers did the same and pointed it towards the back of the jet.

Suddenly, the quinjet doors opened and Tony nearly fell out and dropped the gun he was holding into the ocean beneath. He would have fallen to his death if Steve hadn't grabbed his arm and pulled his hand.

"Clint! What's going on?!" Steve yelled back at Clint, who was driving the jet.

Clint replied with a voice thick with tension and confusion. "I didn't do anything! Someone's overriding the controls!"

Tasha heard a muffled noise and a cry of pain from behind her. A masked man was holding Tony's hands behind his back with one hand and covering his mouth with another.

" ** _Tony!_** " she screamed. The team turned around to see Tony being held. Steve started forward to grab him, but the masked man stepped backwards _,_ dragging Tony with him.

"Let him go!" Steve yelled, pointing his gun at the man. He didn't shoot though, for fear of hitting Tony.

"I don't think so." The man's voice was deep and gruff. "I'm afraid _Loki_ has some unfinished business with Tony here." The team stared.

Another man crept out from the back of the quinjet and raised a syringe full of a dark purple liquid. Another quinjet then swooped in and opened its doors to reveal a team of at least five other masked men. The man with the syringe inserted the point into Tony's neck, ignoring the pleas from the other Avengers. Tony immediately slumped to the ground. Tasha tried to tackle the man who had trapped Tony, but he easily punched her in the gut and she few backwards. The men dragged the unconscious Tony into the other quinjet and took off after closing the doors.

The team stood in silence, looking through the still open quinjet doors after the rapidly disappearing enemy jet.

Clint closed the doors and made to turn the jet around to follow it, but Steve blocked him. "Clint, we can't! We don't know where they're going and we need to go to the helicarrier for more information and backup! Rushing will be the fatal mistake."

Bruce felt like applauding Steve for thinking a plan through, but at the moment he was trying to keep the other guy from coming out. Somebody had _kidnapped_ his best friend! What did they want him to do about it? Nothing!

Bruce sat down with his head in his hands, occasionally looking up at Steve, who kept running his hand through his hair. "What do we do now?" He kept repeating.

That phrase rang through everybody's head in the quinjet.

"What do we do now?"

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 **Thanks for reading guys! I am on spring break so you can expect at least 2 other chapters before Monday. (3/28/16) Just a shoutout: I love _Harry Potter_ and _I Love Lucy._ You can expect 1 chapter a week from now on if not sooner. I will inform you when I will not be updating but this is not one of those times! _Please Review!_**


	3. Chapter 3

**Any time Now**

 **Chapter 3**

 **Wow! All in under 24 hours I got a gazillion favorites, follows, and 1 review!... Yeah... Nvr mind! (but please remember to review) Reviews make my day! (as do Oreo thins 3) I am going to split this chapter in half, the first half focusing on Tony, and the second half on the Avengers and SHIELD. This is a really angsty chapter because I'm an evil person! (Sorry about the length of the first half I wanted to make it a big reveal) Enjoy! (Also sorry about the big wait I know I promised two chapters by today, but maybe I can find time to fit in another chapter today.)**

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Tony blinked open his eyes to a dark room. He was curled up on the ground in the middle of a circular room with a door about ten feet away. He tried to stand, but his knees automatically collapsed. He heard a jangle of what sounded like chains. He felt his wrists and found shackles connected to chains on the ceiling. Another chain connected him to the ceiling by his neck. He was wearing the same clothes he had been wearing on the quinjet; jeans and a black t-shirt, but only his shoes were missing.

Oh... It all came back to him in a flash. The quinjet doors opening behind him, nearly falling out, Steve grabbing his hand. Shortly after, being grabbed from behind, one hand grabbing his wrists, one covering his mouth. He remembered the sharp tingle as the needle entered his neck and then... nothing. Just waking up in the dark room, aching and tired.

He tried standing again, but collapsed once more, shaking more than ever. He tried crawling to the door on the far end of the room, only to find that the chains holding him back were not long enough. He curled up on the floor again and went back into a restless sleep.

...

When Tony woke up again, the room was slightly lighter. Light was shining through under the door. As Tony used this time to look more carefully around the room, he saw that the ceiling did have light fixtures, but they were not lit. A few spider webs were drifting on the ceiling, unused.

Tony tried to stand again, only to find he still did not have the strength. He tried peering under the door, about to call for help. Then he saw feet approaching the door.

The door swung open, emitting light that momentarily blinded Tony. When he blinked open his eyes to see who had opened the door, the lights on the ceiling flipped on, again blinding him.

Tony's eyes finally adjusting to the light, he glanced up to be backhanded across his face. He yelped and looked up again. Again, he was hit over and over again, kicked, punched, and bruised until he just gave up trying to look at his attacker, curling up on the ground, trembling. He shuddered and glanced at the man's leather boots.

A cold, clear voice rang through the cell, making Tony shiver with fear. "Tony Stark. You caused me much trouble in New York. _My turn_."

Tony knew that voice. The voice that haunted him nightly.

 _Loki_.

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"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW WHO DID IT?! YOU MEAN YOU DID NOTHING BUT _WATCH_ WHEN _TONY STARK_ WAS THROWN OUT THE DOOR OF AN OPEN QUINJET?! I THOUGHT YOU WERE SMARTER THAN THIS, CAPTAIN RODGERS!"

Steve thought he had been prepared for the "debriefing" on the helicarrier but he was obviously mistaken. Thinking Fury would spend the entire hour screaming at the Avengers for losing a member of their team, but instead they had been there for three hours already.

"I... I told you already, Director. We tried. But we didn't act fast enough and now we have to pay the consequences. I'm afraid Tony will, too," Steve's voice cracked under the thought his friend may pay for something that was his fault.

"What else do we know?" came a hesitant inquiry from Hill.

"Loki has something out for Tony," Bruce hesitantly added. "I think he has for a while."

"Where where they going?"

Steve took a deep breath and replied with a shaky breath. "The quinjet they were in headed north. They were dressed for cold weather, but they didn't have any heavy jackets or any fur coats."

"What about Loki? Is it possible that he escaped earlier that we found out?" came another question from Hill.

"It would not be clear to anyone on Asgard. It is possible that Loki can plant ideas in men's minds, promising them fame and wealth, but he has been under daily watch in an unbreakable cell," Thor promised.

Fury nodded, still angry, but taking note on the Avenger's (minus one) current state. With a short nod they were dismissed.

Steve went back to his room and sat on the edge of his bed. Shortly, the door opened and Bruce, Clint, Tasha, and Thor walked in. Tasha sat on the edge of the bed next to Steve and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. He smiled at her, but it was forced and it didn't reach his eyes. The others pulled up armchairs and sat around the bed in a circle.

"What do we do now?" Tasha asked.

"We find him," Steve replied.

"We don't know where he is, though. It could take ages and he may be..." Clint paused in the middle of his sentence, not wanting to continue.

"He may be, yes, but we shouldn't base our searches on the possibility Tony could be dead," Steve countered.

Bruce wanted to curl up in a little ball and stay there. He wanted nothing other than his friend back, but he knew he would have to work for that. He felt responsible for what happened on the jet. He could have _helped_ , but instead he had just stood there, staring in shock, even though if he had lost control everyone would have died.

Clint was upset. It had been his fault. If he had found a way to close the door fast enough, they wouldn't have lost Tony.

Thor hadn't been the closest with Tony. They had never been the closest of friends, and he knew that bringing out Mjolnir would have ripped the jet apart, causing them all to fall to their deaths.

Tasha had dealt with worse, but this time it was one of her friends. Also she had been his assistant for a short time, including beating up his friend. She almost smiled, until she remembered that it had also been in front of Pepper, who had no clue anything had happened. She had been in Miami for a conference when everything had happened. Tasha put a mental note in her head to tell Pepper.

Steve also felt responsible. He should have told Tony to put on the suit and check out the jet from the outside, but in all the chaos, he wasn't sure that would have been a very good idea.

When the other Avengers had gone back to their rooms, Steve lay in bed, wondering what Tony could be going through. He suddenly sat upright, one question buzzing around in his brain.

 _How did Loki's followers get onto the quinjet?_

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 **Just a note, that last question is going to be a major plot development. Keep an eye out for new chapters!**

 **By the way, my name is Teresa.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Any Time Now**

 **Chapter 4**

 **Thank you _so_ much to Katdog, Jimenush, and Koalamarch for making my day with reviews! I was tired of waiting for somebody to write a fanfiction like this so I decided to do it myself! Please Enjoy! Also, warning for descriptive torture in this chapter. Please review! I had this crazy idea of adding in other villains from the movies! (not the comics because I never read them... please don't kill me) Like Red Skull(it's fanfic so who cares if he's dead), Justin Hammer, HYDRA, and others if you guys _REVIEW! (That's a hint)_**

 **Crap, I forgot the disclaimers... nobody noticed right? _This isn't mine! If it was, I wouldn't be writing from this crappy laptop!_**

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Tony shuddered as the sound of a knife against clothing was heard. He was still laying face down bloody and bruised from being hit, still gasping for air. Loki grabbed him by his neck and pulled him up so Tony was face-to-face with him.

"So _Tony_ ," Loki sneered maliciously. "How are you? Oh, don't worry. We'll have fun."

Loki dropped Tony, who crashed to the ground with a loud grunt. Loki snapped his finders and instantly the chains holding Tony shortened so Tony,gasping and scrambling his toes to hold up his weight as to not suffocate from the chain around his neck, was hanging by his wrists as well as his neck. Loki rounded around him as the knife was raised and pressed the point to Tony's spine. Tony wold have added a snarky comment in at this point, put the chains made him painfully aware of his position as a prisoner.

Slowly, ripping the white cotton shirt Tony was wearing, he dragged the point down, making Tony arch his back in pain, but made no noise. Loki pressed harder, Tony still making no noise. Soon, when the knife was about halfway down his back he let out a cry of pain and scrunched his eyes closed. Loki, seemingly satisfied took the knife away and walked around to face Tony. Then he paused and looked the trembling man in the eye.

"Are we having fun yet?" he sneered. "Don't worry, I haven't started yet." He cut a circle around the arc reactor through Tony's shirt, having not a care in the world if he cut Tony, who started breathing heavily when he finally understood what Loki was doing. When he finished, a blood-stained, ragged strip of cloth fluttered to the ground.

The glow of the reactor shone through the room, making it brighter than before. Loki hovered his hand over it, making Tony shudder. "So, Tony, do you want me to pull this out? Come on... No?" When Tony still did not make a reply, he yelled in his face, "Answer me!" Loki raised the knife again and cut a few gashes across Tony's face. "No? I guess I'll do it anyways."

And Loki pulled out the arc reactor and examined it while Tony shuddered and his face twisted in agony. About a minute later, he started groaning as the shrapnel shifted through is body, not doubt hitting muscles. Beads of sweat rolled down his head and down his neck. In another minute, he screamed and thrashed around in his restrains, tears of pain dripping down his cheeks.

Loki, unflinching from the scene before him, decided not to loose his toy on the first day and put the reactor back in. He snapped his fingers again and the chains holding the hanging billionaire lengthened again and Tony crashed to the ground, seemingly still.

"So, Tony, what do you feel? I doubt you feel happy or anything else on the positive side." Leaning down towards the still man he sneered, "I hope I taught you a lesson worth remembering," and with that Loki left the room.

Tony shuddered and, with great effort rolled himself on his back, at the sound of the door slamming and the lights blinked out again, this time the only light being the arc reactor, unprotectedly shining throughout the cold, silent room.

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" _Hey, this is Pepper! Sorry, I'm not able to call you right now, so leave a message and I'll call you back. Sorry and thanks!_ " Tasha sighed and left her message.

"Hey, Pepper, it's Natasha. I need to talk to you about something very urgent. Probably not the best idea to say it over voice mail, seeing as it could be hacked into by the public and that would be a _very_ bad idea. Please call me back and I'll tell you in person as soon as possible. Thanks."

Tasha sighed, bit her lip, and put down the phone. She looked over to the corner where the Iron Man stood, keeping a nonexistent silent watch over them. She got up and went to go find Fury among the vast helicarrier.

When she found Fury, he was standing at the table in the conference room, leaning on his arms, his head bowed. She walked in he raised his head.

"Well?" he asked, clearly implying about the call.

"She didn't pick up. I left a message and said to call me back so we could meet in person."

Fury simply nodded and went back to staring into oblivion. Tasha left to find the other Avengers.

 _About 1 hour later..._

Tasha's phone buzzed while sitting at the table in the debriefing room with the other Avengers. They weren't debriefing, just sitting and waiting for Pepper to call back. Tasha picked up the still buzzing phone, and sure enough, it was Pepper.

Tasha put the phone to her ear and heard Pepper's voice through the receiver.

"Hi Tasha! Yeah, I can come whenever you need me to. I'm free this weekend, so is that okay with you?" Pepper's bright voice was strained, as if she already knew something was wrong.

"Yes, that's great. Where do you want to meet?"

In a few minutes, they had made plans to meet on Saturday (two days from them because it was Thursday) at the Avengers Tower in New York. Seeing as it had previously been the Stark tower, Pepper shared a suite there with Tony.

 _Saturday at the Avengers Tower_...

Tasha walked into the tower and went over to the elevator. She went up to the suite floors where she had planned to meet Pepper. Upon getting there, she walked out of the elevator, alone. The guys had said that all of them being there would have raised suspicion. Using her I.D. from when she had worked at the tower as Tony's assistant would have been the only reasonable explanation for her being there, because no citizen knew where the Avengers spent their free time.

She walked in to find Pepper standing in the middle of the floor in a dress and pumps, staring down at the floor with a handbag clutched in her hands.

"Pepper."

Pepper turned to see Tasha standing in the doorway. "Natasha," came a relieved reply. "I tried... He won't... Tony won't answer his phone."

Tasha felt a pang of guilt that she had to tell Pepper what she dreaded. "I know. That's what we need to talk about."

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 **Major cliffie, I know, but I realize you all have been waiting since Monday for an update and more hurt Tony because I know that's all you guys are reading this for. (most of you) I promise Tasha will tell Pepper next chapter, but so far I haven't gotten to the good parts in either point of view. I realize some of you are thinking that me asking you if I should add more villains was the question I was talking about in the beginning and the answer is no! _Please Review!_**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry it's been such a long wait! I had a case of writer's block and the homework monster caught up to me!**

 **Thanks to my four reviewers:**

 **Jimenush: You are such a cruel person. Thank you.**

 **Katdog: Don't care when you read it, just that you do and review. I promise that Pepper will find out in this chapter. Spoiler Alert!**

 **Koalamarch/Ann: Amazing is a title I will definitely stick to. I agree, Loki is life. I don't want to make you pee your pants, though. Whoever does your laundry wouldn't be very happy with me. ;3 Thank you for the idea of adding Thanos! I think I will add him... and a few others. :D Spoiler alert!**

 **Moriartsmajor: Lucky you, here's an update!**

 **Now.. the story. Warning, there is some major whump in the first half and in the second half there is some fluff, angst, and _the realization..._ Also, a mention of the Guardians of the Galaxy in the second half, but no, it remains an Avengers fanfic. **

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Tony blinked open his eyes. He felt strangely well rested, seeing as he was at the mercy of a psychotic god. Except for his throat feeling like it was lined with sandpaper and his stomach feeling like it was going to implode. "Still alive," he muttered. He turned over to his stomach, hissing in pain at the aching in his chest... and everywhere else.

Suddenly, the door opened. Tony shuffled back on the floor, staring in fear at the shadow that stood in the doorway. Then the lights in the cell flickered on and instead of Loki standing in the doorway, there was a young girl, no older than fourteen, carrying a tray of food. The girl wore a black catsuit, not unlike the one Natasha wore. Thinking about his friends made Tony want to cry.

"Please, don't. I won't hurt you." Her soothing tone surprisingly calmed his nerves. She stepped forward, and he flinched, but did not say anything. "I brought you food. I think you're going to need it. Loki is... very angry today."

Tony shuddered. That would not end well for him. "Thank you," he said in a hoarse whisper. "What's your name?"

The girl hesitated. "Alane."

"How old are you? You look pretty young to be working here."

"I'm fourteen. Anyone over twelve can work with no education, and my family needs the money."

Tony smiled a strained smile. Alane set the tray of food in front of him and continued speaking. "It's not all bad. I pretty much just run around and deliver food to the other prisoners. The food is fine, but the ham is kinda dry." She nodded towards the tray, where sure enough, a slab of ham, mashed potatoes, and a glass of water sat.

"Did you say there were other prisoners here? And why is Loki angry?"

Alane froze. "I... I shouldn't have said. I'm sorry."

It was Tony's turn to hesitate. "Thank you, anyways. For the food."

She smiled at Tony and left the room. This time, the lights stayed on. Tony looked at the tray as his stomach rumbled and realized just how hungry he was. Within minutes he had devoured the food and downed the water in one gulp.

With food and water in his stomach, he curled up on the ground again and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

He woke suddenly when the door slammed open. This time it was Loki standing there, clutching his scepter with white knuckles. He stepped forward, snapped his fingers and left Tony dangling from the ceiling. Tony yelped as the chains shortened, pulling on his already sore arms.

He glared at Loki with renewed strenght. "What do you even want from me?"

"Oh, I don't need anything from you. Yet. I have plans," Loki growled as the scepter in his hand shrank down to a whip with barbed tips. Tony gulped and hissed as the whip slashed across his rib cage, tearing the shirt, warm blood seeping through it. Loki rounded around Tony and raised the whip to fling his arm down and across and up, tearing Tony's back to shreds.

Every time the whip ripped out another inch of flesh from anywhere on his body, Tony grunted and tensed up in his restraints, keeping his practice of staying quiet.

Just for a moment, Loki paused and turned around to face Tony again. "Actually, I do need to know something from you. Where is the permanent location of the SHIELD base? I destroyed the one in New Mexico, so I know they must have built another one in the years I haven't been... 'home'."

When Tony did not reply Loki raised the whip again and hit him over and over and over again. Tony counted each strike, trying to keep his mind off the pain that came with each one.

When what felt like an hour had passed, Loki stopped. He let the hanging pulp of a man rest for a minute and left the room.

Tony felt like he had been cut open with a chainsaw multiple times, all over his body. The tears fell and washed away the blood caking his cheeks. Then he realized he was still hanging. Loki had not bothered to let the chains down this time. He groaned as he shifted around in his restraints, stinging the multiple, deep cuts across his back and the sores on his wrists.

Tony was so sore, tired, dirty, and so ridiculously injured he felt like a potato stuck into the oven for three hours with a temperature of 500 degrees. Still, it could be worse. He could be in below freezing temperatures with the arc reactor out and three times the pain he was feeling at the moment. Not that it felt any warmer than below freezing in the cell.

Suddenly, with Tony lost in his own thoughts, the chains loosened and dropped Tony to the floor. He was caught off guard and tried to land on his feet, and as his feet hit the ground, a crack echoed around the room and a great pain raced up his leg from Tony's ankle.

He fought back a scream as he crashed to the ground with a definitely broken ankle. He curled up on the ground and fought back the tears as they threatened to fall down his cheeks.

Not sure of how much longer he could hold against Loki, he whispered into the darkness an unheard call for help.

"Any time now, guys. I'd appreciate it."

* * *

Pepper followed Natasha through the hallways of the helicarrier. She had never been in it before, so it was new to see a flying ship with so much of the tech she was used to at the tower and the Malibu home.

Something was wrong, Pepper could tell. Tony hadn't answered his phone when she had called, which was strange because he always picked up for her. And the sympathetic glances everyone gave her were driving her crazy.

Natasha led her to a room with a large table and multiple chairs around it. Already sat there was a decked-out Steve, a pale Bruce, a pacing Clint, and a Thor who was clutching Mjonlir so hard his knuckles had turned blue. Also, a Fury with his head bowed and arms crossed, an also pale Phil Coulson, and a stony faced, but obviously worried, Agent Hill.

Pepper gulped and stayed standing while Natasha sat herself in the only remaining seat. She stayed up with Clint and Maria, who seemed to be trying to melt the far wall with her glare.

"So... Pepper. We brought you here to tell you something... well... concerning." Fury spoke with deliberate pauses and slurs to mask his words.

"Just tell her, Fury. She has a right to know, and it's been since Wednesday and she has no clue what's going on," Steve snapped.

Fury flinched the smallest of flinches. How would you react if an angry super soldier snapped at you? He cleared his throat and decided to get to the point. "Tony has been kidnapped by Loki. We have absolutely no idea where he is or what Loki is doing to him, but we can assure you, we will find him. I swear."

Pepper's eyes welled up with tears as she bit her lip and tried not to cry. _10 seconds. I will help in 10 seconds when I have gotten myself together._

Steve saw Pepper close her eyes and count to ten under her breath. When she was done, she took a deep breath and wiped her eyes on her shirt sleeve. "How can I help?"

About ten minutes later, Clint was leaving with Thor and a group of eight or so agents on another search party. Some party. 'Oh yeah! Put on your party hat and find your friend!' Clint looked over at Thor, who had not let go of Mjonlir since the meeting with Pepper.

Clint steered the jet over blue ocean and stared down at random patches of sea that looked suspicious. _Nada._ This had been his eighth search party that week, since Wednesday. Now that it was Saturday, he concluded he had done two searches per day. Clint frowned. Had it really been that long? It felt like a month already, and no matter how often Natasha pleaded him to eat, or even sleep, he felt obligated to search for his partner in crime.

Steve glanced along at Pepper. She seemed to be doing fine, but he was still worried. Knowing she was a strong-willed woman consoled him, but not enough.

"What about off-world?" Her voice surprised Steve.

"Wh-What?"

"What about searching other worlds? I know Thor is kinda the expert on this thing, so Loki must be, too."

Seeing Steve's obvious discomfort about speaking in "science language" as Steve would so often call it, Bruce added in. "We have the Guardians of the Galaxy and some of Thor's Asgardian friends looking. All the SHIELD agents are looking in their free time, either on computers or manually."

Then he heard her murmur, "That's not going to be enough." Then she spoke louder, "Is there any way we can track him?"

"Not that we know of. I can't think of any way we could. Personally, we should put tracking devices in all of the agents and Avengers, but Tony doesn't do that thing."

"What about... no, never mind. Crazy." Pepper kept muttering.

"What is it?" Bruce asked.

"A crazy idea. No way it's possible."

"No, nothing's crazy in my world. What's up?" Now it was Steve's turn to be curious.

"What about the arc reactor?"

Bruce's jaw dropped open. "Pepper, you're a genius!" And with that he ran down the hall to the lab.

Steve just stood there. "Wha..."

"I though Jarvis could track the reactor."

Steve smiled for the first time that week, closed his eyes, and shook his head. "Bruce is right about you, Pepper. You are a genius. Just... one question. How did _you_ come up with that and SHIELD combined couldn't?"

* * *

 **That was a long chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Yay! Another chapter! Sorry it took so long. Please remember to review! Thanks to my four reviewers:**

 **Jimenush: Yes, you are! So am I, and proud of it! I don't plan on stopping any time soon because I love this fic!**

 **Katdog: No, he doesn't! You are welcome, here is another chapter!**

 **Moriartsmajor: You are all cruel! (Alright, it is good.)**

 **megtries: You're very welcome. Keep reading (and writing :3)**

 **Please remember to review as usual.**

 **I realize I keep forgetting to do the disclaimer, but I think you guys get the idea that NOTHING HERE IS MINE!**

* * *

 _ **Keep reading it's important!**_

* * *

 **This chapter, instead of the usual two parts, I'll have four.**

 **1st part: Where everyone is. I realize that not everyone is caught up and has no clue where people are!**

 **2nd part: The usual Tony torture section, which I know all of you guys love. ;3 I love writing it.**

 **3rd part: A section dedicated to what Loki is doing. If it isn't written, the next chapter won't make any sense. *rubs hands together like an excited maniac***

 **4th part: Our usual part focusing on the Avengers trying to find our sweet, little Tony. *derpy face***

 **I recently updated my profile. I invite you all to read it. I put on it all of the ideas I have for upcoming fanfictions. I need a little help though, for the one called _Facing Our Fears_. It's about the Avengers facing their own, but I have no clue what to do for their fears! HELP, PLEASE!**

 **Also, I think that I will start recommending fanfics to you, if you enjoy this one alot! Here are a couple:**

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 **- _A to Z of Anthony Stark_ by SupernaturalBaby4Life**

 **Summary: 26 Oneshots of Tony!Whump and Hurt!Tony with Comfort from all members of the team. Each letter of the alphabet, A to Z is a different prompt (Chapter 1, A for Asphyxiation, for example.) ACCEPTING PROMPTS! NO SLASH in this story even though I do ship Stony, so check out my later works. (Rated T for language and themes)**

 **My recommendations: She is very good, I love her works. Gwen is still updating, and I personally think she needs a little help with prompts! (I know I would die if I wanted to do this.)**

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 **- _in the Dark_ by megtries**

 **Summary: When the team gets kidnapped and are forced to live through their fears, Tony helps them along, but who will help him when it's his turn?**

 **My recommendations: This author is very talented, and is actually where I got the idea for my upcoming fic, _Facing Our Fears_. All credit to them for it! And thanks for reading this! (I'm talking to megtries)**

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 **- _The Red Skull Arena_ by PenPatronus**

 **Summary: Hydra captures the Avengers and forces them to fight for their lives, gladiator-style. Teamwork, friendship, family, hurt/comfort. Features Tony, Steve, Bruce, Clint, Natasha, Thor. HURT! Clint HURT! Tony HURT! Steve HURT! Bruce**

 **My recommendations: This author is _the best._ I think they recently finished this fic up. I recommended an epilogue to them, but I don't think they will. Still, really good. And with 78 other stories! _78!_ I realize this is one of the more popular fanfic, but I just had to point out that this author is the best. They have lots of other good Tony whump stories. Check them out for more. One of their other stories is called _Wires_ and it's my favorite story, by far.**

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 **Also, I am going to do a fandom search in a few chapters. _This is one of them_. Find the quote from a fandom that is _not_ the Avengers and you win a virtual lollipop! ;D JK. If you review with the correct answer, you win the chapter 6 fandom search!**

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 **Wow! If I keep this up, it will be the longest chapter ever! It was going to be, anyways, though. ;3 Spot the fandom!**

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 ** _Where is everyone:_**

 _In the SHEILD Helicarrier:_

\- Pepper Potts

-Steve Rodgers

-Bruce Banner

-Natasha Romanoff

-Nick Fury

-Maria Hill

-Phil Coulson (I forgot to mention, in this fic he is alive)

-Our lovely double agent (unrevealed. Hopefully you notice the easter egg!) See chapter 3 for some explanation. (Last question)

-The rest of the SHEILD Agents

 _Looking for Tony:_

 _-_ Clint Barton

-Thor Odinson

-A few SHEILD agents

 _In Loki's base:_

-Tony Stark

\- Loki Laufeyson

-Alane (unrevealed last name... just keep waiting!) HINT: She is _very_ important!

 _More characters not introduced yet:_

 _-_ Colonel Rhodes

-Our villain extras (first seen this chapter)

* * *

 ** _Our Tony section:_**

Tony blinked back the tears threatening to spill down his cheeks as he shifted again, disturbing his ankle, shredded back, and other various cuts along his face, arms, and chest. He lay spread-eagled on his back in the cell, his ankle pointing in an unnatural angle. He moved his hand to his side, only to be brought back up to his face covered in warm, sticky blood.

"Could be worse," he muttered into the dark, damp room. Sitting up, he then proceeded to peel the strips of blood-covered cotton of his bloody back and sides. Hissing, his fingers aggravated more that one bruise or cut. Finding a myriad of deep, yet scabbed-over cuts on his face and legs, Tony continued to lay the already bloody strips of cloth over them.

"Nice idea." Tony started at the female voice that echoed through the door. He sighed, realizing it was Alan, whom by this point he trusted. The lights flickered on to reveal the teenager standing in the doorway.

He smiled at her. "Just trying to _not_ bleed out before I get out of here. What are you doing here?"

Alane frowned at his carelessly thrown-out statement. "Are you really sure you are going to get out of here?"

Tony just kept smiling. "Yes, I am." She smiled and he paused. "Just a quick question, I promise it won't risk your summer job or anything, but how long have I been here?"

"Since Wednesday. It's Saturday."

Tony frowned. "Four days? It felt like two."

Alane smiled again. "You've been sleeping a lot." She stepped closer and set down another tray of food. "If it helps, all prisoners are fed every other day, so don't feel like I'm neglecting you."

Tony stared at her. "Neglecting me? I'm lucky to even have company."

"At least you have hope. Most of the other prisoners feel like no one cares about them anymore. Nobody's ever tried to get out, so I guess that means no one's tried to rescue them."

Tony was about to make a reply, when a thunderous voice burst from the doorway. " _WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING?!"_

Alane gasped and snapped around to find herself face-to-face with the god of mischief. For a moment she stammered and looked like a fish gasping for air.

"I... um, well... I-I... well...Icametogivetheprisonerfoodbecausealltheothersdo." She rushed out the last bit, cringing at her own words.

"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU?! ALL OF THE OTHER PRISONERS GET FOOD THOSE DAYS. THIS ONE GETS IT EVERY _FOUR_ DAYS," Loki roared at the young girl, who flinched and trembled in front of the angry god.

"I-I... well, it just..."

" _Do you hear me, girl?"_ Loki spat out the last word like it was poison.

Alane flinched again and squeaked out, "Yes, sir."

Loki nodded. "Good. Now, _leave!_ " he screamed. Alane trembled, nodded, and scrambled out the door.

As the door slammed shut, Loki turned to Tony, who was still staring at him in shock, with a fake smile plastered across his face. "Now, where were we?"

Tony snapped out of his trance and glared. "You were about to tell me why you treat your assistants like that."

Loki returned the glare with a more malicious one and kicked the tray of food that had been lying in front of Tony across the floor. "Technically, she's not an assistant. Her parents pledged her to me. Along with her twin sister. Because all of my magic comes with a price." Loki snapped his fingers and left the billionaire hanging once more.

"Of course it does. Knowing you, you filthy, backstabbing, pathetic excuse for a son, you didn't keep that promise." Gasping for breath as his arms were yanked above his head,Tony spit out every word like it was burning his tongue.

Loki did not have the reaction Tony wanted. Instead, he looked to the side with a thoughtful look on his face as the scepter in his hand transformed into a blue-diamond encrusted knife. Tony swallowed...hard, as Loki continued

"Actually, I think I kept that particular promise. Their two daughters for... I actually can't remember now." Loki tapped the blade of the knife against his chin thoughtfully.

Suddenly, the lightbulb in his head lit up. "Oh, that's right! It was to save their son from captivity. The promise actually was made shortly after you escaped Afghanistan. I got the son out, of course, in exchange for the two twin daughters. You've already met Alane, and her sister, Gabriella is off doing... something else."

Tony took a shuddering breath. "Anything else while you're at it? Put me on a guilt trip?"

Loki grinned. "Not quite finished here, Stark. Doesn't it make you feel like your own life?" Seeing Tony's eyebrows rise, he continued. "Well, more than that. But what about your father? Did you ever think Captain Rodgers was more important than you to Howard? If I knew any better, I would say that if the chance, your father would have traded you for the Captain."

"Yes, I did. More than once. But I decided that when I meet Howard again, first I will punch him in the face, and second, I will show him that Steve wasn't perfect. Much like himself," Tony scowled.

Loki grinned. "Good answer. Unfortunately, not the one I was looking for." He raised the knife. Tony ignored it.

"What were you looking for, your brain? Oh... oopsies. Did I hurt wittle Woki's feewings?"

Loki roared and raised the knife and plunged it into Tony's leg.

The smirk that had rested on Tony's face moments before disappeared in a flash, only to be replaced by a face with wild eyes and a mouth open and frozen in a silent scream. Back arched and muscles tensed, Tony gasped for air as the knife remained where it rested, tearing at skin and muscles.

It was Loki's turn to smirk as he grabbed the knife again as he pushed the knife in hilt-deep, and then twisted it.

And Tony Stark screamed for the first time.

* * *

 ** _Our Loki section:_**

Loki walked down the hallway of the building with a new purpose in his stride. Turning right into a small room with computers, the man sitting in it stood in a salute.

"Sir, he hasn't moved, but his vitals are still fine. Stark is stronger than we thought," the man said.

"Keep tracking them. We still need him for the plan."

"Yes, sir. And our double agent has done her job. The Avengers are in the process of tracking the arc reactor now."

"Good," Loki muttered.

"But, sir, do we _want_ the Avengers finding us?"

"Yes, Mathers, yes we do."

Loki sneaked a glance at the monitors on the desktop. They showed a man laying in a pool of blood in a heap. "Tony Stark may still be useful to us."

Loki walked out of the room to be greeted by another man. "Sir, they have arrived."

"Good. Let's hope they changed their minds."

...

Loki strode to another room, where a large figure was accompanied by two smaller ones.

"Good, we are all here. Let us begin," a distinctly German accent rang.

"Now, gentlemen, I hope you remember you are in my custody. I lead here," Loki said.

"Fine, puny giant." Another man this time, his accent American, spoke up. "I still don't get why they call you a frost giant if you look like a norman man."

"You would do well to remember that I captured Stark, the one you want to kill so badly, so keep your mouth shut," Loki snarked back.

"That's the only reason I'm here. I want to kill Stark, and be successful again."

"Gentlemen." The larger figure stood up. "The god has a point. We are in his custody, but not much longer if we join forces to bring down the Avengers."

Loki bowed is head. "Thank you, your honor." He turned to the other two men. "Let us go over our deal again? I have... tweaked it to fit all of our needs. I capture the Avengers, and you give me money," he nodded to the American man, who nodded back, "forces," the same to the German man, "and freedom." The large figure sat up a little straighter, then to Loki's relief, nodded.

"Good. Then you all get free range on all of the Avengers and knowledge that the Earth is unprotected from domination."

"Just to be clear here, nobody is going to destroy me or my company, right? I mean, then there would be no point in me being here," the American man said.

The other three men exchanged glances and then said in unison, "Of course."

* * *

 ** _Our Avengers and SHEILD section:_**

Bruce raced along the helicarrier to the lab. " _Faster, Bruce. Hurry."_

"Banner?" Bruce skidded to a halt as he heard his name.

"Natasha? I thought you were with Clint and Thor?"

"No, I was needed here." Seeing his skeptical expression, she shrugged. "Okay, I wasn't. I was looking into our double agent."

"Double agent?" Pepper and Steve had caught up with Bruce. "What double agent?" Pepper asked again.

"I was wondering how, if the quinjet we used to get here picked us up, why was Clint flying it?" Natasha asked.

Bruce's jaw dropped open. "We are _so thick._ "

Steve piped up. "I was wondering the same thing, but I forgot that bit. Just wondering how Loki's followers got into our quinjet."

"They dropped this," Nat held up a syringe. "I ran some tests and found it was the same one they used on Tony, and found traces of sedatives inside."

"They injected him with sedatives?" Pepper grumbled. "I swear, when I get my hands on who ever did that..."

Natasha interrupted her. "But the thing is, these sedatives are only found in SHEILD. I also found a string of wool, ran some more tests, and found they were from SHEILD issued ones."

"SHEILD issues gloves?" Bruce asked.

"Obviously. How do you think we withstand the cold? And like Steve said earlier, they didn't have any fur on them, and neither does SHEILD. Yet they were dressed for cold weather," Natasha said.

"Are you saying SHEID has a double agent?" Steve asked.

"Yes, I am. What were you doing, rushing to the lab like that?"

"I think I found a way to track Tony."

... (in the lab)

"So JARVIS had access to Tony's location the entire time and never told us?" Clint and Thor had returned from their search by that time and had walked in while Bruce was explaining what they had to do. Clint was shocked to hear Natasha's "quinjet picked us up" theory, but was even more dumbfounded to find out that they could have been over with this ages ago had they just called Pepper in earlier.

"To make it clear, Agent Barton, I could not have done such a thing as to tell you where Mr. Stark was, because I am unauthorized to the rest of the helicarrier. Technical difficulties seem to be my major weakness," JARVIS piped up in his own defense.

Pepper smiled. "Technology does seem to have quite a few of those. No offense, I mean you are still the only computer that can talk back with sarcasm."

"Thank you, Miss Potts. Would you like me to track the reactor's location now?"

"Yes!" The team (minus Tony plus Pepper) spoke in unison.

"Agent Romanoff? Agent Barton? What are you doing?"

The Avengers spun around to find Nick Fury, Maria Hill, and Phil Coulson standing in the door to the lab. Natasha stammered, "Well... we... it's... I..." She shook her head and pointed to Coulson. "Aren't you dead?"

Coulson shook his own head. "Don't ask. It's very complicated and I don't think it would make any sense to anybody but Tony. Who, as I have been informed, has been kidnapped by Loki."

"Arc reactor tracing to 86%," JARVIS said.

"What are you up to?" Fury's eyes (well, I say eyes... you know what I mean) narrowed.

"We're tracking the arc reactor in Tony's chest. Now, who is going to explain what is going on? Phil _died_?"

"It's a long story and we really don't have time. Where is Stark?"

"Tracking 100% complete. Mr. Stark is currently off the west coast of northern Great Britain."

Steve heard the best news of his week. "Come on then, team. We don't have time to loose."

* * *

 **Okay, so sorry again for the long wait, but did you spot the fandom? Sorry it took so long, I would have had this chapter up sooner had it not been for my schedule.**


	7. Rescue (sort of)

**Sorry it took so long, it took me about a week to start and with all the Civil War chaos, I haven't had a lot of time to do so. And this chapter is really long.**

 **Yay! Moriartsmajor got the fandom guess right! The quote was "All magic comes with a price." from Once Upon a Time! Congrats!**

 **Thanks to my 4 reviewers:**

 **Lydia: Glad you like it!**

 **Katdog: KUDOS TO LOKI! KUDOS TO EVERYONE IN THE MCU! Sorry, fangirl moment there. ;3 Cliffies are the best if you write the fanfic and you know what is going to happen next. *evil laugh***

 **moriartsmajor: Fandom guess right! Thanks for the support!**

 **megtries: I loved your story. It was awesome to see family Avengers.**

* * *

 ** _I HAVEN'T SEEN CIVIL WAR YET AND I'M GOING CRAZY I CAN'T SEE IT UNTIL NEXT WEEKEND SO PLEASE DON'T REVIEW WITH SPOILERS!_**

 **I HAVE SEEN SUPERMAN V. BATMAN THOUGH SO FEEL FREE TO REVIEW ACCORDING TO WHICH IS BETTER!**

 **Sorry... fangirl moment... BUT STILL!**

 **I'm going to do another fandom search in this chapter! BEWARE! (And no, it's no the note in the middle, for those Shrek fans.)**

 **We are back to the usual two parts. 2nd half will be _special..._ ehehehehehe. The first part will be pretty short, not much whump. The second part will, though... ehehehehehe... hahahahahaha... EHAHEHAEHAHEHAHEHAHEHAHEHA**

 **I only just realized you can name the chapters... is that weird? Probably... oops.**

 **Read and review!**

* * *

Tony hissed through his teeth as he prodded his leg again. At that point, all of his clothes were covered in either dried or wet blood. Not that his shirt really existed anymore. It lay in strips around him, some covering his cuts and gashes. Not that there was much to do with the bruises. The gigantic, purple, deep bruises. The ones that lay everywhere on his body.

And the deep knife wound in his leg. Tony couldn't really feel it anymore. _Still not sure if that's a good thing,_ he thought. He took his fingers away from the gash, to bring his hand away covered in hot blood.

And the broken ankle, which throbbed when he tried to move it.

He was laying flat on his back (not that he could sit any other way) in the cold cell. Tony drew a shuddering breath which stung his lungs like wildfire every time. His arms ached from the chains holding them above his head. On a scale of 1 to 10, ten being the worst pain he was feeling, Tony was an 11.

Footsteps echoed past the door, and Tony heard a conversation through it. " _...prepared. Found us... coming any minute now..._ "

The people were cut off by a scream and a crash as the footsteps receded down the hallway.

Tony's eyes drooped, his chin dropped to his chest, and he started to tremble. Muttering the words he had dreaded into oblivion, " _It's a trap._ "

And the door creaked open to reveal five large figures.

One with a shield...

One with a hammer...

One with a gun...

One with a bow and arrows...

And another unarmed...

The Avengers.

They had fallen right into the trap.

* * *

 _Hehe... cliffie... :3_

* * *

 _4 and a half hours previously_...

"Captain Rodgers! Care to explain what's going on?"

Steve spun around to face Fury. "We found Tony. We're going to find him."

"How... how did you..."

"We tracked the arc reactor. Problem?" Steve asked.

"No..."

"Good," Steve said.

He made to push past Fury, who caught his arm. "Where? We'll help."

"I'm sure we can handle it. It's just Loki, we beat him last year."

"Yes, but this time, you're one member short," Fury said. "Comm us if you need backup. Give us the coordinates."

Steve rolled his eyes. Clearly annoyed, he growled. "I'm sure we'll be fine..."

"Just do it, Rodgers."

After a moment, Natasha sighed and slapped a hard drive into Fury's hand. "We'll only call if we need help." She eyed Fury dangerously. "Only if we need help."

Fury nodded and backed out of the doorway. The Avengers dashed through the door. "Suit up, team," came an order from Steve.

Ten minutes later, the Avengers stood outside the doors of an open quinjet.

Inside, Bruce glanced around the back of the quinjet, looking for the shadows that had haunted his dreams since Tony had been kidnapped.

He saw Thor and Natasha do the same thing. The three exchanged glances, obviously thinking the same thing.

Clint hopped into the pilot's seat and flipped switches and turned dials.

"How long will it take us?" Steve asked.

"Five hours, guessing," Clint claimed. He turned around and flashed an evil grin at Steve. "Four if we hurry."

 _Four hours_ _later..._

"We're here. Just in time," said Clint as they spotted a structure jutting out from the side of a sea stack in the middle of the ocean. From what they could see, it was relatively large, most likely being able to house about a couple thousand people.

"So that's why they weren't dressed for cold weather like normal people do. The sea mist would have weighed them down," Steve said.

"It's big." Bruce frowned. "Why would Loki need so much space?"

Clint shrugged. "I dunno. His wardrobe?"

Bruce chuckled, only to be silenced by a glare from Thor. Clearing his throat and regaining himself, he spotted something else. Pointing, he piped up, "Look, it's a landing site."

"Okay, then," Clint started steering towards the helipad. "Let's go knock on the front door."

The team had been stir-crazy the entire four-hour trip to the base. The jet had adopted a grim, contagious feeling during the time, and nobody had been able to sit still.

Clint parked the quinjet on the edge of the helipad, which was larger than anyone else realized. Already there were about ten other quinjets, and no people except for the guards near the door. The quinjet landing had gone unnoticed.

"Those guards don't look very protective of the doors," Natasha muttered. Her comment went unnoticed by the other Avengers except for Clint, who frowned and nodded.

The team prepped themselves, Natasha still looking uneasy. Clint turned on the reflective panels on the jet as Steve pulled his mask over his face and grabbed his shield.

"Okay, team. Let's make this as clean as possible. We get in there, find Tony, get out. Hopefully, we'll run into Loki and Thor can handle him. I'm guessing that Loki may have backup, seeing as he's Loki, but nonetheless, we should avoid hurting unarmed civilians. We good?" he asked Clint.

Receiving a nod from the archer, Steve turned to Bruce. "You're coming with us. There may be a need for medical assistance, but hopefully we won't have to bring out the other guy."

Another nod, and silently, Steve signaled for the team to move out. Soundlessly, the quinjet doors opened to reveal open ground before them, about fifty yards away from the guarded entrance. The only noise they heard was the roar of the ocean, but even that wasn't enough to drown out their landing.

Natasha noticed the nonexistent movement from the guards. She narrowed her eyes as the Avengers stepped out into the open and there was still no movement. _Shouldn't they have at least noticed us by now?_

"Clint, knock out the guards," she hissed, and Clint quickly nocked an arrow, also uneasy of the unmoving guards. Steve looked at them both with a questioning glance.

"They haven't moved." The assassins whispered simultaneously. Steve's mouth made an "o" and he gave a nod to Clint, who was quick to fire two arrows into the chests of the guards, who fell to the ground without a noise.

Thor and Bruce narrowed their eyes at the lack of noise and quickly jogged after the others towards the unmoving guards.

When Steve reached the guards, there was none of the expected blood. He flipped the bodies over and gasped in surprise.

"What is it?" asked Bruce.

"They're not real," murmured Natasha. "It's a trap."

True to Natasha's words, the guards were just two dummies, both with arrows sticking out of the chests.

"What should we do?" Clint asked. Receiving a skeptical look from Steve, he was quick to rephrase. "I didn't say we shouldn't get Tony. Not what I meant. I mean, how should we proceed?"

"Carefully," said Steve. "And quietly."

"Good." Pointing, Clint continued. "Vents?" There was a sizable vent just to the left of the gigantic double doors. The team nodded grimly, and continued.

Hearts racing and pulses pounding, they crawled into the vents just big enough for Thor. Grunting, they continued through the maze of vents.

Pausing once or twice, Clint finally stopped at another opening, this one inside the building. "This looks right. You think this looks right, Tash?"

Natasha nodded, and the team crawled out, having to pull Thor out because he couldn't fit through.

They found themselves in a long hallway with many doors along it. At one end, there was a large door, and at the other, the hallway continued either way.

Suddenly, voices were heard from down the hall. Two guards walked down the hall as the Avengers rushed into an empty room to hide. The two guards walked past them on the way to the large door at the end. A snippet of their conversation was heard as they walked past the door the Avengers were hiding in.

"We should be prepared. Loki has set the trap and they should be coming any minute now."

Steve suddenly jumped out the door behind the passing guards and threw his shield like a frisbee. The guards gasped and turned around to get a face full of vibranium.

As the unconscious guards were dragged out of the way, Bruce was staring at the large door in front of the group.

Steve rested a hand on his shoulder. "Got that feeling?"

"Yeah." Bruce pulled away and walked towards the door. The metal was cool to the touch. The handle easily turned. Bruce frowned. "I expected it to be locked."

He opened the door, took a look inside, gasped loudly, and promptly vomited.

Inside the dark and damp room lay a body in a large pool of blood. The figure was curled up in a fetal position and covered in more bruises than countable, the ankle protruding at a strange angle.

Steve gasped and whispered in a soft and terrified voice. " _Tony?_ "

Tony groaned, probably unable to make any other noises. Steve rushed forwards and knelt down beside him, not caring how much of the engineer's blood he got on his suit.

" _St-Steve?_ " The voice was so soft Steve doubted he even heard it.

 **[A/N: At this point, I want to just yell out: "DONKEY!" Welcome to my head.]**

"Come on Tony, we're going to get you out of here." The rest of the team, who had either been staring in shock or helping Bruce stand, snapped out of their trances.

Bruce stumble forwards and collapsed at the billionaire's side on his hands and knees. " _What did that sick god do to you?_ " Bruce scanned his friend's extensive injuries and fought back the vomit threatening to climb up his throat again as he laid eyes on his leg. "Oh, my..." he faltered, unable to say it. "Tony, your leg." Sure enough, the stab wound in Tony's leg was still bleeding.

Clint just kept staring, his heart threatening to shatter his chest from the inside. His brain seemed unable to process what had happened before his eyes. He glanced over at Natasha, who was also staring and struggling to keep her stoical mask in place. Thor's grip on Mjonlir was so tight, his blood was dripping from his palm, where his fingernails were cutting deep into his skin.

Steve just stared down at the half-dead body of his friend. "We need to keep moving." He slid an arm underneath Tony's back and lifted him up gently, but still jarring a cry of pain from the engineer's mouth.

Tony's mouth opened, " _S-Steve, i-it's a t-trap... you h-have to go..."_

Steve shook his head. "Not happening." He tried lifting his friend again to a failed attempt. He grunted and said, "I'm sorry about this, I really am, Tony, but we need to get you to a hospital." And with that, he lifted Tony off the ground into a bridal style carry. Tony's eyes flew open and a mix between a scream and a whimper escaped his lips. Nonetheless, it tugged at Steve's heartstrings.

Bruce stumbled to his feet and followed Steve out the door, past Natasha, Clint and Thor, who looked like they were still trying to process it. "Come on," whispered Bruce. The three nodded and followed the already jogging Steve out to the front door.

Turning a hallway, Steve stopped in his tracks, causing Tony's limp arm to fall from his own chest and dangle in the air. Around the corner stood about ten armed men. The team rounded the corner as well and gazed at the men with guns trained on them. Natasha stepped forwards.

"Gentlemen, let's make this easy. You get out of the way, and I won't have to hurt you." The men exchanged glances, and started laughing.

Clint stared at Natasha, knowing she hated it when people laughed at her. One of the men snorted and started talking, "What makes you think you can get past us?"

Natasha smiled. Clint shivered at it, because it was her "don't laugh at me or I will snap your neck" smile. The one he knew so well from experience. Then, Natasha charged the men. They widened their eyes at the assassin making her way towards them and tried to run away before they were decapitated.

In less than a minute, all the men were dead or dying. Steve looked down at the reactor that sat in Tony's bare chest. It was growing dimmer by the second. "We need to get to the quinjet. Now."

In less than five minutes, the team sat around Tony in the quinjet, watching their friend struggle. "Those were HYDRA agents," Natasha said. She sat at the pilot's seat.

"I know," Steve said. "A mission for another day."

He felt the quinjet leave the ground of the base, this time with all six teammates in tow.

The sudden whirring of helicopter blades alerted them. Clint rushed to the window and paled. "Guys... you might wanna see this." The team rushed to the window and looked through, leaving Tony alone on the floor.

"All ten of the quinjets we saw before?" Clint's voice wavered. "They kinda had people in them."

Sure enough, the jets that had been parked on the landing pad were in the air, chasing after them. Natasha snapped into action and commed Fury.

"Fury? You know how you said we should call if we need help? I hate to admit it..." An explosion rocked the jet. They had gotten hit by one of the machine guns attached to the other jets.

Natasha cursed in Russian and shut down the message to Fury. "We're gonna have to loose them." She started steering around to the flank of the group of jets, before they were hit again. She cursed again, this time in English, raising a eyebrow from Steve.

"Shouldn't we-" He was cut off by a gust of air entering the quinjet and flipped around to see the same thing that had happened those days ago.

The quinjet doors were open and Loki was standing in the opening, with Tony dangling from his neck over the edge.

For a quiet moment, everyone in the jet stood where they were in silence, before Steve lost it.

"Put him down! You are a sick and pathetic excuse for a human being!" Steve screamed at the god of mischief.

"I'm not human. But you want me to put him down?" Loki was smiling.

Thor stepped forwards and raised his hammer and pointed it at his brother. "Put. Him. Down."

Loki just smiled wider. "As you wish." And his fingers loosened from Tony's neck as he plummeted, not to the floor of the jet, but the ocean.

As Loki disappeared, Tony felt himself falling. He had temporarily lost consciousness as his air supply was cut off. In a last attempt, he grabbed the edge of the quinjet door and hung on for dear life.

The strain was like fire on his sore muscles. He gasped, his lungs struggling to expand as he hung five thousand feet above the ocean, hanging by ten fingers... eight fingers... five fingers. He felt his fingers slipping one by one, and as a heavy gust of wind hit his face, one hand entirely slipped. Four fingers... three... two... and he fell.

Bruce gasped loudly as Tony fell. To his relief, fingers were seen just on the edge of the door. But they were slipping one by one. " _Hang on, Tony!_ " Bruce couldn't hear his own voice over the roar of the wind as the doors remained open.

Just as his last finger slipped, Tony felt a hand grab his forearm. He looked up to see Bruce's face straining to hold him up.

Steve sighed in relief as he saw Bruce lifting a gasping Tony up to the quinjet. Loki had disappeared, probably knowing that he would have been killed in the most gruesome way had he stayed.

Natasha was still struggling to keep the quinjet upright as the machine guns on the enemy quinjets kept firing at them. Suddenly, she spotted something on the radar and screamed, "Heat-seeking missile!"

Bruce, Steve, Clint, and Thor snapped into motion too late. The missile found its mark and everything spiraled into darkness.

* * *

 **Okay, that was incredibly long. Sorry it took a while, but I have upcoming final exams and my teachers pack in as much homework as they can before. Next time... ;D**


	8. Unrevealed

**I'm _so very sorry_ it took so long to update, but I had writer's block, plus finals in school are coming up, plus the summer swim season just started(yay!). But I got to see Civil War twice and it was _AMAZING!_ I loved it so much and it gave me some more ideas for upcoming stories. I am currently in the process of writing a oneshot. Just keep waiting! Oh, and I just got a Beta profile, so yipee! Plus I got to see Guardians of the Galaxy, so that just made my weekend better! **

**Thanks to my reviewers!:**

 **KatDog: Thank you for being my most frequent reviewer! Civil War was fantastic and I can't wait for my next story now because it gave me great ideas!**

 **Guest: Thank you! I love cliffhangers!**

 **moriartsmajor: Technically, that wasn't the answer I was looking for, and I didn't realize I added that quote in! Oops... the other quote was "As you wish," from the _Princess Bride_. But kudos to you for seeing that! I love _Star Wars_ , though. I saw the _Rouge One_ trailer when I went to go see _Civil War_ , and it looks amazing!**

 **Th3RedPyro: Lol yes, Shrek all the way. Thanks for the encouragement!**

* * *

 **Recently, PenPatronus came out with a new story called _The Empire Strikes Back_ that takes place after Civil War. If you've seen it, you'd know why it's called that. Here's the summary:**

 **CA:CW sequel. Tony is arrested for Steve's crimes and an unexpected enemy kidnaps and tortures him for information about his missing teammates. Will the Avengers reunite, or will their empire be toppled once and for all? WHUMP, BROMANCE, HURT/COMFORT**

* * *

 _ **KEEP READING THIS NEXT BIT IS IMPORTANT! VERY IMPORTANT! I MEAN REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY IMPORTANT!**_

* * *

 **I feel like we will only have 4 or 5 more chapters left, unless you guys want me to make a twist ending. This is the question I wanted to ask in the beginning, and I feel like we have reached that point. The prompt for the twist ending is: Tony DIES. That's basically it. I wanted to write a twist ending to this fanfic where Tony dies. I just don't know what to do as a cause. That's why I'm asking you guys, cuz I have no idea.**

 **To the story! ;3 (I'm sorry there isn't much whump in this one, but I will be packing it in during the next few chapters.)**

* * *

Steve woke up in a dark room, surrounded by other bodies, the floor covered in a sticky liquid. The only light that lit up the room was soft, yet flickering glow that came from one of the figures in the middle of the room. He looked down at his wet palms. They were red with blood.

Realization hit him like a brick wall. " _Tony_..." There was no response. Steve made his way to the apparently unconscious Tony's side and shook his shoulder. " _Tony...wake up..."_ His voice was a hoarse whisper, his throat lined with sandpaper.

"...Steve?" Tasha's voice rang through the room from the other side.

"Nat... thank goodness. Are you okay?"

"I-I think I broke a rib." She gasped as she tried to sit up. "Is Tony... okay?" She asked even though she knew he wasn't.

"What do you think?" Steve grabbed Tony's limp wrist and checked for a pulse. After a minute of tense waiting, Nat heard him sigh with relief. "I found a pulse. He needs help, though. I'm not sure how long he's going to last like this." Sure enough, Tash could see from the other side of the room that the arc reactor lighting up the room was flickering.

Both members looked around the room. "Where are we?" Nat asked.

"In a dark room who-knows-where," grumbled a new voice they both recognized as Clint. Thor woke up moments later. "Aye friend, Barton. I have not the faintest idea of where we are."

"Clint. Thor. Thank-" Nat was cut off as a groan echoed around the room as Bruce woke up.

"Ow... My everything hurts." Bruce sat up. "Wait, where's Tony?"

"Over here," Steve said. In less than a second, Bruce was by Tony's side, looking for a pulse and checking his various wounds.

"Professional diagnosis?" asked Clint.

"It could be worse, but he's busted up pretty bad. He's lost _a lot_ of blood, his right ankle is broken, his back is shredded to bits, he's malnourished, dehydrated, has a fever, and it looks like he's been stabbed in the leg. And it's getting infected. And I'm gonna assume he's going to be in a lot of pain and really sore when he wakes up"

The entire team felt a flare of anger at Loki.

"How exactly could it be worse?" Clint asked angrily.

"Tony could be dead," Steve pointed out. This received a murmur of understanding.

"Is there a plus side?" Clint asked.

"I managed to get a comm link in to Fury before we got ambushed. That good enough for you?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah... But I'm not going to wait here like a princess waiting to be rescued while Tony's _dying_ ," Clint retorted.

"Yeah, well, we can't exactly move him. I think we would just put him in more pain if we tried, and from what we have seen, it's not very easy to get out," Bruce said. Clint gave him a death glare. "I'm not saying we won't get out." Bruce ripped off the bottom of his pants and used it like a makeshift bandage on Tony's leg.

"Those were HYDRA agents," Steve murmured.

It was so quiet, nobody thought they had heard it.

"I'm sorry, friend Steven, I do not understand," Thor finally spoke.

"Those people we met on the way out, they were wearing HYDRA uniforms. They were obviously newer, but I had seen pictures on a new case Fury wanted to give me." Steve looked up. "I don't think it's just Loki."

The others in the group exchanged glances. "Well, we can't worry about that now. We have to focus on keeping Tony alive until we get help," Clint said.

After a few minutes, Clint spoke up again. "Where's the other guy?"

Bruce stared down at the floor dejectedly, pausing in bandaging Tony's bloody leg. "I don't know. It's like he's sleeping. I can't seem to find him in my head."

"What about Mjönlir?"

"Alas, I cannot summon my faithful hammer. It must be Loki's trickery," Thor said.

"Indeed, brother. But not just mine."

The door slammed open to reveal 4 shadowed figures.

Loki stepped forwards into the light along with one of the other three.

Justin Hammer was dressed in a nice suit with a matching tie and shoes. Natasha hissed and started forwards towards him, but Loki clicked his tongue at her. "I'm afraid I can't have you doing that, little spider." He slammed the butt of his scepter into the ground and the gem on the top glowed brightly.

When the flash died down again, the Avengers, minus (the unconscious) Tony, were chained to the wall as blue energy cages dropped down from the ceiling to line the circular room five feet from the wall.

Loki smiled as the next figure stepped into the light. It revealed a large figure, with a golden helmet and purple skin. On his left hand was a gold gauntlet with five, empty, round holes. On his left hand was another gauntlet with no holes, but with some strange technology on it.

Dismissing it, Clint asked, "Who's the purple power ranger?"

Loki smiled again. "This is Thanos. If you didn't know he was the one who aided me with my scepter when I attacked New York."

Thanos said nothing, just smiled at Thor, who glared back in return.

"When you attacked New York and failed miserably," came a reply thick with a German accent from the third, shadowed figure.

Loki glowered at the man. "Well, forgive me if I'm wrong, but weren't you defeated by one hero?"

The third figure stepped forwards menacingly, but stopped short of the light when Thanos threw his hand between them. "Gentlemen, calm. We are working together, are we not?"

The third man stepped into the light, and Steve's jaw dropped open along with everyone else's.

Clint shrugged. "Well, now we know what hero Loki was talking about."

It was the Red Skull, Johann Shmidt.

* * *

 **Ok, so I was originally going to make this longer, with a bit at SHEILD, but I realize you all were probably getting impatient. So here you go!**


	9. Author's note

So, I'm sorry to all of you who got the notification that I updated, but this is just an author's note. So, my summer vacation is coming up, so you all know that means vacation. Guess what I'm doing. Going on vacation. I will, however, still be working on this when I am gone, so expect an update a few days after June 21. Yay!


	10. Apologies to you all!

Guys, I feel so bad. Can I just say that? My year has been so hectic. I didn't forget about you, don't worry, but my mom got cancer (and is better now), my great grandfather died and we had his funeral last week, and along with me moving schools (again) and the homework load is sooo much bigger. I just needed some time off the story, and I came back to apologize.

Don't worry, I will be updating this story soon, but I haven't typed a thing for this story in 6 months. Due to technical difficulties, I have to type the chapter out on my iPad, so it's extra slow, but a family member is getting me a keyboard for Christmas, so typing will be much faster after that.

I can't say when the next chapter will be out, but know it's coming!


	11. I'm BACK, yall

**Sorry... *dodges pitchfork* I'm back! WITH A NEW CHAPTER! Again... sorry. Because you all have been waiting so patiently, I made this chapter longer, and the next one will be relatively long as well. Along with this chapter, there are 3 left, so I'm hoping to get this story done with, cuz I have great ideas for other fics, including an X-Men fic where they all react to Days of Future Past, but I can't do that without finishing this story first! But here you go!**

* * *

"Red Skull profile update". Maria Hill looked up from her paperwork in her office as a blinking light caught her eye on the computer screen in front of her.

"Impossible" she muttered.

"What's impossible?" Maria jumped as a sudden voice interrupted her thoughts. She quickly flipped her head around to see Phil Coulson standing behind her with a file clutched to his chest.

"Oh. Phil," She turned back to the computer. "Look at this."

He leaned over her shoulder and peered at the computer. "That shouldn't be possible. He died decades ago."

"Apparently not," Maria opened the notification showing a blurry picture of a person dressed in black, but with distinctly red features. "Sighting in London."

"Isn't that around where..." Phil started, but trailed off as his eyes widened and he stood up straight. "Oh."

"What?"

"We just deployed the Avengers off the coast of England," Coulson muttered, still staring blankly at the screen.

"But how is he still alive?" Maria asked.

"I don't know. Maybe the same as Steve."

"What, you think he froze, too?"

"Like I said, I don't know," Phil shrugged.

"Well, I don't think so. They didn't find anyone with Steve in the remains, and he said Schmidt disappear."

"Thor told us that the Tesseract was the Space Stone, so maybe it transported him somewhere? Maybe somewhere time stops? He doesn't look a year older than the pictures they took from the forties."

"We have to tell Fury." Maria started out of her chair, but Phil stopped her.

"Wait, Hill. Look.

Maria looked back to the computer screen to see another blinking red light. It read: "Incoming message from the Avengers quinjet."

"Oh, good. They must have been successful. Better that then run into Red Skull," Coulson said.

Hill played the message: "Fury, I hate to say it, but I think we may need some back up…" A loud crash resounded over the recording, and it went silent.

Coulson frowned. "That's not good."

Hill looked up at him. "What should we do? We don't know what happened to them, and from what we know, Stark is still with that stupid Asgardian."

Coulson looked at her. "Round up some agents," he said. "We're storming the base."

He turned around to alert Fury, but found himself looking down the barrel of a gun.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Mr. Coulson," said the teenage girl looking down at him.

She looked about 19 years old, with shoulder-length brown hair and green eyes.

Phil stared at the girl. "What do you think you're doing?" he said in disbelief. "You can't just point a gun at me and say I can't do something."

"A bit late for that," she said.

Hill stood up behind Phil. "Who are you and what do you want?"

The girl smirked. "Right down to business, I see. I am Gabrielle Yinsen. I am your double agent."

Maria frowned. "That's a familiar name. Yinsen."

Gabrielle showed no emotion. "You might have seen it in Mr. Stark's bio. My father is Ho Yinsen, the engineer that helped him escape from the Ten Rings all those years ago. He died there, so I never really knew my own father, but I still had my mother, brother, and twin sister. The Ten Rings took my brother in the hopes that he could build them the missile instead, but he couldn't, so they killed him. My mother, as selfish as a human can get, traded me and my sister in to the Ten Rings for her own life. They killed her of course, but found use for us. But they soon collapsed, thanks to the tin can, and me and my sister failed to be normal, so we found Loki, who was looking for his own little minions. He sent me, to become a juvenile agent here at SHIELD, and my sister is with him at his base, serving out her own time as his little minion."

Phil rolled his eyes. "That's quite the backstory you have there. And your sister is with Loki?"

"Yes."

"And you have been training with us for how long?"

"Six months."

"Learn anything useful?"

"Why are you still talking?" She seemed to catch on.

"Obviously you didn't," Coulson answered his own question. "Because if you had, you wouldn't have shared everything about yourself we didn't know, and you would have realized I was stalling much earlier than you actually did." He smiled. "It's called a hustle, sweetheart."

Maria couldn't help it. She laughed. And this wasn't a chuckle, but a full-out, in hysteric's kind of laugh. Despite the fear surrounding everyone in the helicarrier, it felt good to just burst out in unexplained laughter every now and then.

Gabrielle snarled and aimed the gun at the laughing agent, just as the door slid open to show a very furious Fury.

Gabrielle's face went slack, and her gun arm dropped. "I'm screwed aren't I?"

Coulson continued smirking. "Yes, hon."

"What's going on?" The director looked at the smirking Coulson looking down the barrel of a gun held in the hand of a snarling teenager, and his best agent rolling on the ground with laughter. He just rolled his eyes. "I swear, teenagers these days."

Coulson turned to look at Fury, his face serious once more. "The Avengers-"

"I know, Coulson. I got the message. Gather a team," he said to Maria. "Best agents we have." He turned to Coulson. "You know what to do with her."

* * *

Tony grunted every time the crowbar slammed against him. His skin was already spotted with bruised, and he was certain that a few ribs were snapped. He couldn't breathe, and every part of his mangled body ached.

Red Skull continued swinging at the broken man before him, despite the angry outbursts and desperate pleads he got from the other members of the team.

Loki smiled as the red man continued his beating of the prisoner, and Alane shrank into a corner, sobbing.

Tony couldn't do it anymore; the metal bar slamming into every inch of skin left, and the red-hot pain surrounding everything made him want to give up, he just wanted to die already.

Loki, sensing this, stepped forward. "Enough," he said. "I don't want to ruin our plan."

Red Skull quit, reluctantly. "And what exactly is that?"

Loki grinned sickly at the Avengers, and then at the mangled and broken man before him. "Why, information, of course."

"Huh," Red Skull huffed before he left the room.

"Well," Loki said. "If we want information, we should start now."

The staff in his hand glowed, and turned into a diamond encrusted knife, and much to Loki's delight, there was an uproar from the heroes.

Steve leaned up against the bars as much as he could without burning himself of the energy cage. "I swear, Loki, if you lay that knife on him, I will rip out your internal organs and deep fry them," he snarled.

Loki laughed. "The only internal organs that are being ripped out and deep fried are Mr. Stark's, if you don't give me the information I require. Now," he knelt by Tony, pulled him up into a semi-sitting position, and pointed the knife towards his throat. "Tell me, where are the vaults containing the remaining Chutari weapons?"

Tony groaned as the knife was shoved closer to his neck, a few crimson droplets of blood spilling. "Steve…. Don't tell him," he managed to pant with the knife pressed to his throat.

Suddenly, everything in Steve's head clicked. "You knew, all along, that we were going to come and try to rescue him."

Loki laughed. "Of course I did! What kind of friends would you be if you didn't come?" He looked down at the struggling Tony. "And Mr. Stark has proven to be quite the leverage here, haven't you?" He turned back to the incredibly angry team and pressed harder with the knife, earning a painful groan from Tony. "Unfortunately, he has refused to tell me anything, so you will now tell me. _Where are the weapons_?"

* * *

 **So, there's you're new chapter! I can't say how long it will be until the next one, but hopefully not long. R &R**


	12. Almost done!

**Sooooooooory! I'm back with a new chapter... this is the second to last one... We're almost done! (Part of me is happy... I've been DYING to do a Yuri! on Ice fic...) But here you go! *tries to make up the long wait to you by give you virtual cookies***

* * *

Maria Hill looked out over the top of the windy helicarrier, currently floating in the Atlantic Ocean. Coulson and Fury would be joining her soon, but for now, her many hand-picked agents were grabbing weapons for the raid. If Red Skull was working with Loki, God knows how many soldiers they could be fighting.

"Hill!" Maria turned around to see Fury and Coulson jogging towards her. "Wheels up in five!"

"Yes, sir! Where's the girl?"

"She's locked up safe and sound," Coulson yelled over the wind.

Fury looked at the several dozen agents awaiting orders. "Our top priority is getting Stark and the Avengers out. He turned to the team that was staying on the helicarrier. "Be ready with medical for Stark if he needs it." Then he turned to the entire group. "Load up!"

Inside the quinjets, Fury set up a radio link with all the squad leaders. "Squads, check in."

" _Squad A1, reporting."_

 _"Squad A2, reporting."_

 _"Squad A3, reporting."_

 _"Squad A4, reporting."_

 _"Squad B1, reporting."_

 _"Squad B2, reporting."_

 _"Squad B3, reporting."_

 _"Squad B4, reporting."_

Fury nodded, gave the signal, and the nine quinjets took off.

* * *

 _3 hours later_

Clint couldn't take it; seeing a… friend in pain was mentally scarring. _Well, I didn't realize Stark was something more than a teammate. Maybe something will come out of this, and not just all of us alive._

But it could get much worse. Loki was kneeling by Tony, pulling the billionaire up by his neck, and aggravating the numerous wounds covering the man from head to toe. Loki had a knife pressed against his throat, threatening and interrogating the Avengers one by one.

Bruce and Thor did not possess the information that Loki wanted, and every time the claimed to not know, Loki made another cut in Tony's neck.

Natasha didn't know what to do. As much as she had been trained, she had never been prepared for a situation like this. The instructors at the Red Room had not taken account to the fact that she would be a part of a team, and much less prepared for the fact that she might have friends she cared about. One of her greatest weaknesses were her friends, even though she would never admit it.

Steve knew, of course, what Loki was looking for, and though he knew, Tony would never forgive him if he relinquished his information. That was enough to keep him quiet.

Suddenly, the door banged open to reveal Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, and Maria Hill standing there, guns cocked and faces angry, ready to shoot anything that came across their path to recover their lost comrades. "Drop the knife and put your hands up where I can see them."

Loki snarled. "I don't have time for this." He stood up, letting Tony fall to the ground with a grunt, and the knife in his hand turned into its threatening true form. He aimed the spear at the three in the doorway, but a deep rumble echoing throughout the compound stopped him, as he looked around, War Machine crashed through the ceiling, punched Loki in the face, and knocked the Asgardian out cold.

The faceplate opened to reveal a sweaty James Rhodes looking at Fury. "You didn't think I was going to let you have all the fun without me?" He looked down at his bloody, half-unconscious friend. "We should hurry up."

He looked up to see the stunned Avengers staring at him, still trapped in the energy cages. Rhodes looked around. "Can somebody figure this out?" At this point, some of Fury's agents had found the security room, and shut of the cages.

Steve rushed forwards towards his friend laying on the floor. "Tony? Can you say something?" He started prodding at the man. "What hurts?"

The tired genius opened his swollen eyes and glared at the soldier. "Everything."

Bruce knelt by the man's head. "We need to hurry up. He's running out of time."

Steve nodded and picked up the man, earning a quiet groan. Fury nodded from the doorway. Thor walked forwards, picked up his brother and the scepter.

The group walked out to find a few dozen SHIELD agents waiting for them with guns at the ready.

"Ready?" Fury inquired.

"The quinjets are ready to go, sir."

"Good."

The group moved quickly through the hallways, where they turned a hallway to find a dozen or so soldiers, likely Hammer's men, ready to shoot.

"Put your hand where we can see them!"

The group eyed each other, and moved as fast as lightning. Thor summoned Mjonlir, and the hammer came crashing through the wall behind the soldiers. As the men dove for cover, Steve ran with Tony through the startled men and rounded a hallway with Bruce, Fury, and Clint tagging along. The two men kept running through the hallways with Fury yelling at them through the fray.

"Stop right there!" Loki was staring at the group with disheveled hair and scepter gripped tightly in his hand. Thor was standing behind him with eerily blue eyes. Loki must have escaped and put him under the scepter's spell.

"Capitan!" Maria ran up behind them and held out the shield to the man. But before Steve could hand Tony off and take the shield to fight off the mind-controlled demigod, Loki ran up and grabbed Tony before anybody could do anything.

Steve took the shield, and with a yell, launched himself at Loki, who only summoned Thor to knock the super soldier out of the air. And, with a blood-curdling shriek, Loki plunged the scepter into Tony's stomach.

 _Tony's POV_

The last thing Tony felt was pain. Unbelievable pain. The pain he had felt in before was nothing compared to this… How long had it been? Hours? Days? Weeks? Tony certainly hoped that this would be it. Steve was here, they were fine. Thor was there, as was Bruce, Natasha, Clint, and the SHELD agents. But maybe… this won't be for anything…

And those were Tony's last thoughts before everything faded to black.

* * *

 **There you go! My school gets out this Wednesday, so the next chapter should be up fairly soon. But don't take my word on that... you all know by now that I am absolutely awful at updating quickly.**


	13. Chapter 13

**We're almost done! Finally!**

* * *

Tony blinked open his eyes slowly, only to feel pain. There was pain everywhere. His vision was fuzzy, his head felt like it was full of cotton balls, and he had a massive migraine to add on to the sore muscles in his shoulders, a sharp pain in his ankle, and a throbbing pain in his stomach. And, there was this super annoying beep that just _wouldn't stop_.

" _Oooooowww..."_

 _"_ Tony?"

That was Steve. Tony was positive. Who else would sound so worried for him?

"Yes, Capsicle?"

"Tony, are you alright?"

Tony opened his fuzzy eyes and shot a glare at the super soldier. "Yes, Steve, I feel like I could run a mile and then some."

Steve smiled lightly. If Tony was being sarcastic, then he was probably fine.

"Tony!"

The other four members of the team came rushing in, along with a loud blabber.

"Tony, I'm so sorry-"

"Don't know what we were thinking-"

"Should have thought more-"

"A friend would have-"

"GUYS! SHUT UP!" Steve yelled at the group.

It was effective, though. The silence was deafening.

Tony raised an eyebrow at Steve. "Okay, then... So," he turned to the rest of the group. "What exactly happened?'

Natasha spoke up. "After you passed out, Thanos disappeared, Red Skull got shot and died, Thor took Loki to Asgard, and Hammer was arrested. His trial starts tomorrow."

"Okay then... good to know," Tony said.

Bruce eyed him. "We can leave. You look tired."

Tony shot him a glance that read: 'Thank you so much get these noisy people out!'

"Yeah, we should go," Natasha said.

Moments afterwards, the room was enveloped by darkness, and Tony fell asleep.

 **A week later**

Tony groaned loudly and flopped onto the pillows of the hospital bed.

"How much longer?!"

Steve chuckled lightly at the engineer's complaints. "Any time now."

* * *

 **Thank you so much guys!**


End file.
